Auburn's unlucky cigar

Auburn's first-year head coach was just starting a rebuilding project. The Tigers had not won an SEC road game in more than a year and Tuberville needed another incentive to motivate his new team.

A road trip to LSU was circled on his calendar.

The prize proved important for the program, whose previous season was marred by injuries, the resignation of head coach Terry Bowden and a three-win season. Unrest had settled and Tuberville needed to bring his players together.

Tuberville was already 2-0 as Auburn's coach, but the wins were not impressive. His Tigers nearly fell behind two touchdowns to Appalachian State, a Division I-AA school, before winning by a touchdown. The Tigers then defeated Idaho 30-23. Auburn entered the third week of the season as a nine-point underdog at LSU.

Tuberville labeled it as Auburn's "Cigar Game" in preseason camp, but little did he know the simple motivational tactic would set in motion a string of missteps and failures in Baton Rouge, La., where "Death Valley" became an impervious setting for future Auburn teams.

***

Auburn was ready. Trick plays were on the table and the cigars had been loaded on the bus. More importantly, the players were surprisingly relaxed heading into their first road game.

As the team walked on the field at Tiger Stadium for their walk-through, the thick Southern air filled their lungs. A flag football game among teammates erupted.

The visiting Tigers were loose and ready for what was ahead.

The next day, LSU quarterback Rohan Davey made the first start of his SEC career. LSU had hopes of winning an SEC title, but Auburn seemed unstoppable on this Saturday afternoon. Davey's second pass was intercepted by Auburn's Kenny Kelly, resulting in an early field goal for the visitors. A three-and-out followed for LSU.

"It was a pretty bad day for us," former LSU coach Gerry DiNardo said. "I don't remember anything good happening for us."

DiNardo's nightmare was just beginning.

Facing fourth-and-goal at LSU's 1-yard line, Tuberville called the offense to the sideline. A 6-0 lead on the road is always a good start for a team, especially in the SEC, but Tuberville wasn't here to toy around with LSU. The Tigers practiced a fake field goal with a run and pass option throughout the week and Tuberville promised to use it when the time was right.

"If we kick another field goal, they'll kill us," Tuberville said to himself.

The Riverboat Gambler turned to the offense as they walked off the field. "Hey, guys, you need to watch this," Leard recalled.

In a play that would be copied by several teams over the next several years, Auburn holder Jacob Allen took the snap as kicker Damon Duval ran to his right. Allen quickly flipped the ball over his head and into the racing arms of Duval, who ran into the end zone untouched for a 9-0 lead.

"That was an extra early-in-the-game nail in the coffin," Duval said. "We're here to play and we're winning this game at all costs."

Duval finally kicked the football, but did so on the extra point. Auburn grabbed a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Tuberville and players celebrated. A national television audience watched as a team accepted the man tasked with turning around Auburn's football program.

"I don't know if there's a better way to put it other than that it was ballsy on his part," said former Auburn safety Rob Pate. "That filters its way down to the players when your coach is willing to pull out all the stops."

Auburn wasn't done and the Tigers grabbed a 17-0 lead in the first half. Moments later, Davey threw his second interception and DiNardo replaced the quarterback with Josh Booty, who didn't fare much better, throwing interceptions on back-to-back possessions to end the second quarter.

Auburn built a 34-0 lead before LSU threatened. Leard threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns, including two scores to Ronney Daniels, who led the way with 120 yards. LSU fans headed to the exits in the third quarter. Most of the crowd had left the stadium before the end of the game.

The empty bleachers provided a rare sight on the bayou, where rabid LSU fans summon energy from their libations, gumbo and love of Tiger football. They arrive early and they stay late.

And they're rowdy.

"Baton Rouge is its own unique place," Pate said. "They treat you terribly as you ride into the stadium. You certainly know you're in a different part of the world and these people are a little more rowdy than your typical every day college football fan."

The usual yells of Tiger Bait were replaced by Auburn's fight song. As the game developed, the Auburn cheers grew louder. They echoed in the hollow chamber.

"There's nothing like hearing your own band playing on the road," Pate said.

***

Auburn players jogged into the spacious locker room in Tiger Stadium to celebrate their first SEC win -- and blowout -- of the season. The underdogs were 41-7 victors.

A stack of cigar boxes awaited them along the wall as Tuberville had promised. Auburn equipment managers handed the cigars to the players one by one. Players and coaches filtered their way back to the field puffing their lit cigars in victory. They celebrated with the Auburn fans and band, and dropped their shoulder pads in the end zone. The only people remaining in the stadium to witness the activities were Auburn fans, and the LSU and Auburn marching bands.

As Auburn players posed for photos while smoke floated into the sky and ashes powdered the field, the LSU marching band had a front row seat. While players took photos, the LSU fans were filing the images inside their memory banks.

"How can this even be allowed?" said Joey LaHatte, who played trumpet for the Tiger Marching Band in 1999. "It's so rude and ridiculous. LSU was just a disaster for about 20 years and they're sitting there smoking cigars on LSU's field like they had accomplished a great thing."

Auburn players and coaches relished the moment as word leaked out about their celebration on LSU's hallowed ground.

LSU's football team was mostly unaware of Auburn's celebratory cigars. Davey, after playing one of the worst games of his career, was already disappointed in himself and wondering about the future, but when pictures of Auburn's post-game celebration surfaced, a switch flipped in his head.

"It was insulting," Davey said.

"We would have had a bad taste anyway from getting our behinds whooped like that, but somebody celebrating on your field? They might as well have lined all of us up on the 50 and thrown pie in our faces."

Davey obtained a photo of the celebration and pinned it inside his locker. The photo of Auburn players puffing cigar smoke inside Tiger Stadium served as daily motivation for the quarterback until Auburn returned to the bayou in December 2001.

Meanwhile, Auburn didn't worry about the fallout. The team was bonding under their first-year coach's guidance and the prospect of reaching a bowl game seemed realistic.

It wasn't all fun and games, however. The NCAA fired off a nasty letter to Auburn and threatened to declare players ineligible if they did not fork over $1 a piece for receiving improper benefits (one cigar).

"We gladly went through our couches and found the change," Leard said.

Tuberville never used cigars as a prize for players again.

LSU chancellor Mark Emmert fired DiNardo in the final week of the regular season. His replacement was an up-and-coming coach from Michigan State: Nick Saban.

Auburn had momentum, but change was coming to the early-season rivalry.

***

Auburn didn't have much trouble with LSU in 2000. The Tigers blew out the visitors 34-17 on their way to an SEC Championship Game appearance. Davey served as Booty's backup and attempted only one pass.

Trouble, however, was on Auburn's horizon. A showdown in Baton Rouge in 2001 was delayed due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, setting up a rare clash for the SEC West title in early December.

LSU fans and players labeled it as their "Cigar Game." Fans walked into the stadium with cigars in their pockets. A fan-made billboard with "Smoke this, Tubs" greeted Auburn's team bus as it slowly rolled toward Tiger Stadium. LSU fans rocked Auburn's chariot, children flipped off players and fans confronted Tuberville wherever he roamed.

Players and coaches had to fight their way through the sea of purple and gold outside the stadium. The hatred was palpable.

"They were throwing cigars at me during the game," Tuberville said.

The LSU contingent was as incensed as any fan base could be before a game. The dial had been turned from 10 to 11. They wanted revenge for what Auburn did during and after the game on their field at Tiger Stadium in 1999.

"LSU remembered it like it was yesterday," said Leard, who served as a graduate assistant in 2001.

LSU players certainly didn't forget, and neither did Davey, who still had that photo in his locker. The motto throughout summer workouts was revenge: "Remember," said Davey, "and don't let it happen again."

As Auburn players exited the locker room, which visitors must enter by walking through rubber flaps resembling the entrance to a meat locker, Mike the Tiger roared in his adjacent cage. LSU fans were hungry, but Auburn was not intimidated. After warmups, Auburn player stomped on the large tiger's eye painted at midfield.

LSU fans booed.

Motivated? LSU wasn't motivated. These Tigers were filled with rage.

"Smoking cigars on the eye and then stomping on the eye," Davey said. "It was all disrespectful. That's Tommy Tuberville. He's a very, very, very good head coach and also a a very, very good motivator. He likes to celebrate when they win. I can understand that, but you have to understand, too, there are consequences to everything."

Game officials penalized Auburn 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. Like Tuberville two years before with the fake field goal, Saban saw an opportunity and called for an onside kick. John Corbello's kick worked, LSU recovered the football and LaBrandon Toefield scored a touchdown six plays later.

LSU was on its way to an SEC title. The atmosphere was electric, but it wasn't the end of controversy.

At the tail end of halftime, Duval exited Auburn's locker room in an effort to warm up his leg with a few kicks. The problem? LSU's marching band was still on the field.

As LSU's band marched toward the end zone in formation, Duval stood in the way. A baritone player, not willing to disrupt the formation and endanger his other band mates, walked straight through Duval and gave him a shove for good measure. The crowd booed Duval, and as drum major Tony Marinello walked alongside the band, he spotted the angry Auburn kicker following the band members into the end zone.

"I had a fiery attitude back then and it led to a little altercation," Duval said.

As the band stacked its formation and stopped playing a tune, a trumpet player turned to Duval and hurled cuss words at the kicker. Duval was not happy.

Several tuba players jumped into the mix and a punch was thrown. Marinello entered the melee trying to quiet the fight.

"It's the stupidest thing I've ever done," the former drum major said. "I ran up and stood in front of Damon Duval as if I was going to do something. Even as the kicker the guy was 6-(foot)-4 and I'm 5-8. Even though he's the kicker and it's the position everyone makes fun of, he could still kill me if he wanted to."

Duval backed down and disaster was averted. ESPN cameras captured the shoving match, which aired several more times on SportsCenter.

LSU had the last laugh.

"It was karma that night," said LaHatte, who was in the middle of the altercation. "The band was fired up. That was probably one of the largest roars you heard from the fans during our halftime show because they were mad, too."

In the land of voodoo, it was karma that led to Duvall's follies in the second half, LaHatte said. Auburn's reliable kicker would go on to miss a 29-yard field goal. He also threw an interception on a fake punt attempt late in the third quarter. Minutes later, LSU grabbed a 27-7 lead and held on for a 27-14 victory, sending LSU to its first SEC Championship Game in school history.

Two years after emptying the stadium before the fourth quarter, fans stuck around and celebrated on the field with victory cigars. Tuberville was hounded by the cigar-carrying crowd as he walked off the field. One player contends to this day that an LSU fan tried to light Tuberville's hair on fire with a stogie.

Tuberville and several coaches later tried to leave the stadium for a recruiting trip in a small van as the post-game party raged into the night. Fans surrounded the vehicle. "You had a lot of players who were fired up and ready to get off the bus and try to take care of the situation themselves," Duval said. "Fortunately, that didn't happen."

Meanwhile, Davey and his teammates headed to a post-game party. LSU's quarterback, two years removed from a disastrous performance, was relieved.

He smoked a cigar.

"Everybody did after that game," Davey said.

***

Auburn's loss in 2001 was the first domino leading to failure on the bayou.

Some games were classics: Demetrius Byrd's last-second catch in 2007; LSU holding on in 2005 as John Vaughn missed five field goals, including a clank off the upright in overtime.

The heartbreak is no less painful in blowouts. Auburn's seven consecutive losses in Tiger Stadium have come by an average of 17 points. The 16-year skid is also Auburn's longest losing streak in the SEC.

Davey believes the streak is a curse stemming from Auburn's decision to smoke cigars on the field in 1999, the last LSU loss in Baton Rouge.

"That's absolutely correct," he said. "It's almost like a curse and I hope it continues."

The last Auburn players to win in Baton Rouge wonder, too, if there's a hex. Some wonder if smoking cigars on the field was the right thing to do.

"It may be karma," Leard said. "Karma bites us all in the ass, but I don't think that's the case. I just think it's good football."

Sixteen years have passed since Auburn's 34-point victory. Coaches have come and gone; players have become businessmen and fathers. They now proudly show their children photos of that September night in the bayou and reminisce about the time their team came together under a first-year coach, setting into motion a successful tenure that included six straight victories against Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

LSU fans and former players, however, have vivid memories tainted by cigar smoke. The resulting double-digit victories that followed inside Tiger Stadium have provided some solace for the LSU faithful, who have since celebrated two national titles.

Winning is the true elixir for an SEC football fan. Time also heals wounds.

Marinello and LaHatte would love to meet Duval and snap a picture with the kicker who made them famous, but grudges are hard to let go. They had a rare front-row seat for the dueling "Cigar Games" in 1999 and 2001, and the memories are still fresh.

"Oh my God," said LaHatte. "I hate Auburn to this day. I'd rather have a daughter in a whorehouse than a son at Auburn."

The venom, even if it's playful, runs thick at LSU. Pate attends some games on the road and LSU is among his favorite environments. An LSU fan realized he was a player from the 1999 team after a brief discussion in 2011. "He said, your secret is safe with me in this section," said Pate, "unless you guys go up by two touchdowns, and then I'm gonna break your neck."

Auburn travels to LSU on Saturday as seven-point underdogs and while cigars may not be on the menu, don't be surprised if the game seems familiar.

Like Auburn in 1999, this group of Tigers enters a rare afternoon game at LSU following two unimpressive victories, including a scare from an FCS opponent. Whether Auburn can repeat history under Gus Malzahn remains to be seen.

When Auburn's team bus rolls toward Tiger Stadium, the ghosts of games past will circle the field, eliciting memories of wins and losses gone by. At a tailgate, a puff of cigar smoke may conjure memories of Auburn's post-game crimes before the turn of the century.

LSU fans never forget.

"It was ingrained in those players for a long time," said Pate. "It wouldn't surprise me if there was a picture of some of us in their locker room today."